


The Passage of Time

by decayingsuits



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Child Abuse, Child Death, Grief/Mourning, Hurt No Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:34:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29811270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decayingsuits/pseuds/decayingsuits
Summary: A week. Seven days. One hundred sixty eight hours.He promised, Tommy believed him.A warden's mistake.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 35





	The Passage of Time

**Author's Note:**

> So...Tommy's stream huh...

His keys jingled from their place on his hip, the ticking of the clock in his hand filled the beats of silence but sounded too loud against the blackstone walls. He continued to pass the clock between his hands while walking down the halls, teeth worrying his lower lip. Sam was counting the seconds he had been since he’d put the prison into lockdown a week ago.

One hundred sixty seven hours, fifty five minutes, six...seven...eight seconds.

Guilt had been collecting like stones in his pocket and he was drowning in regret. There weren’t enough ways for him to apologize, he’d spent hours laying restless while trying to muster up the right words but they never came. It felt like he was trying to speak a language he wasn't accustomed to.

It was a week, just a week. He spent so long reasoning with himself that it would be fine, that Dream had grown docile in captivity and that Tommy was aware enough not to fall back into his clutches again. A week's worth of justification never satiated his worries. 

Sam paused in the room of the main vault, he wondered if Tommy would have taken to just annoying Dream into silence. The thought earned a weak chuckle. 

One hundred sixty seven hours, fifty six minutes, thirteen seconds. 

The guard’s tunnels felt far more narrow than he recalled. 

He walked with a hand gliding lightly over one of the walls, the stone was cool to the touch but pulsed with life. Pandora had a heartbeat, a steady drum that fell perfectly in tune with his own, Sam had felt it since the first line of redstone was laid. He’d breathed life into the build and he could sense it falter suddenly beneath his fingertips. It was enough to give him pause and press his palm flat to the brick as if listening for a secret.

Sam willed himself to continue down the hall, shaking the creeping sensation of concern off as he pulled a hand through his hair. The sigh that left him was heavy and eased a weight off his shoulders. 

One hundred sixty seven hours, fifty nine minutes, thirty seconds.

Without the sounds of bubbling lava, his only audible companion would be his ticking clock. It never missed a second, the noise a reliable keeper of time within the disorientating obsidian walls. He wondered if Tommy had been keeping an eye on the time like he had, tallying the clicks and holding them like a lifeline. Did he even know seven days had come to pass? That was another thing to add to his list of apologies. The list was becoming long enough to clutter his thoughts. 

The false wall slid shut behind him as he stepped into the final room, greeted by a wave of oppressive heat and a bright orange glow. He waited for his keycard to return to his hand before he went towards the wall of controls. Sam hadn’t returned to the room since he was forced to leave Tommy behind and that fact stung like salt in a wound he hadn’t bothered to acknowledge yet. It was something he filed away for later consideration, a discomfort to revisit after he’d shed his title. 

He pressed the intercom button under his thumb and forcefully stuffed the growing anxiety down beneath the steeled facade of the Warden. 

“Tommy, seven days have passed since the prison was placed into lockdown. Due to the rules of the contract you signed, I am here to let you out. Please step into the pool in the corner to return to the exit bed.” 

Sam waited for a response until the silence started to drag.

“Do you understand?” 

His brow furrowed, Tommy being silent was a rare occurrence. The kid was always trying to fill the gaps with mindless chatter and laughter, more so after his return from exile. He didn’t seem to feel safe when the noise died down.

“Tommy..?” 

He swallowed thickly. 

“Dream.” The chuckle he heard was deep, the rumble of thunder before a storm. “One of you, say something.” His nerves caused his voice to waver which only made Dream’s amusement grow, his laughter sounded hollow.

One hundred sixty eight hours, zero minutes, four seconds.

He pressed the button for the cameras and scowled at the black screen he was met with. Sam reeled back a step, Dream had never made an attempt at breaking the cameras before, he always claimed he liked the attention. His beating heart felt like a hummingbird rattling around in his ribs.

Every procedure and rule that he'd carefully crafted to make his prison inescapable slipped his mind as he yanked the lever to cut off the lava flow. Its slow descent sunk the blade of worry further and further into his back. 

One hundred sixty eight hours, one minute, seven seconds. 

The noise that left him was strangled. Dream stood tall with pride, hand still fisted in the teens shirt, he was cackling. He let go of the fabric and the sound of Tommy’s body slumping against the obsidian echoed in his head. The clock slipped from his hand, it’s glass face cracked beneath the weight of his heel. Sam couldn’t hear the ticking, not over the blood pounding in his ears. 

He pulled an ender pearl from his inventory and threw it. Sam landed in the cell and seized the prisoner by the collar, the breath knocked from Dream’s lungs as he hit the wall. His hands shook in rage and grief as the emotions washed over him like tidal waves, and the bastard was still laughing. Dream’s mask had been knocked off in whatever scuffle he and Tommy had, the look of pure glee in his eyes was sickening. 

“What the fuck did you do.” Sam demanded and slammed Dream back against the cell wall. 

“He didn’t believe me, Sam. I had to teach him a lesson.” The words made him taste bile, masked only by copper as he bit his tongue to stop another choked sound from escaping him. Not in front of Dream, he wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “He should have listened to me when I told him what to do. I wouldn’t have had to do it.” 

One hundred sixty eight hours, four minutes...How many seconds? Did the seconds matter anymore? Why was he still counting?

The throb in his knuckles was hard to ignore as he dropped to his knees next to the crumpled heap of the boy. Sam removed his mask and let it tumble across the floor as he tried to steady his shaking hands before picking him up and cradling him carefully like a porcelain doll. He was still warm. Tommy’s throat was muddied with bruises, he could make out the impressions of Dream’s hands. A sob wracked his shoulders as he wiped a purple drop from the crying obsidian off of his cheek though it was replaced by one of his own tears. 

He buried his face into his blond hair and drew him in closer, unable to stop himself from choking over the apologies the boy would never hear. 

“I wasn’t fast enough, I, I failed you…” Sam whispered despite the fact he wanted to scream to let out the torrent of grief inside of him, “I promised to protect you and I didn’t...”

“I’ve failed,” he tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling of the cell, the obsidian dripped onto his face and felt like an extension of comfort.

Pandora wept alongside him, aware and conscious of his sorrow.


End file.
